Shayas in Shanghai

Protein anyone?

Its difficult being a germaphobe in Shanghai. Evidence of the dirty air is as close as your front porch. There is a consistent cry from the cement buildings and brick sidewalks "Scrub me!!!" If the kids step outside in their bare feet for just moments, they come inside and their feet are black. Then there is all that spitting and urinating and coughing (the chinese have not learned the art of covering their mouths when they cough, or even turning their head away from the innocent passerby).

So I find it particularly troublesome that in the grocery store much of the 'fresh' food sits uncovered and available for whoever to touch and breathe on. Today's pictorial, the grocery store. Remember too that this is one of the more upper-end grocery stores.

 Nope, this is NOT a pet store...

A good reason to learn to read Chinese, so you know what is inside these probably very yummy dumplings, but, they too are sitting out in the open...

And the cookies/crackers...

This whole row is rice - all kinds of rice....

At last, something that looks familiar...Baskin Robbins just opened up a few weeks ago. Its really expensive, as in $10/pint expensive! You can also see a view of the checkout lanes. Very empty today - I only go during weekdays, the earlier the better!

Zaijian!!!
 
 
 
 

 

Zippity Doo Dah!

Big Brother Wu is finally allowing me to post some entries to the blog - so sorry for the long delay in updating you on pictures from Phuket. Thusly, right on the tail (!) of the elephant blog, I bring you the rest of the vacation.

Here we are as we arrived at the hotel in Phuket. Max is beginning to think that all hotels offer wet towels and cold beverages upon arrival!

The beaches were amazing. The sand was soft and soooo hot!  We would get to the edge of the sand and then run as fast as possible to the water!  Another thing to check off list:  "Walk on hot coals!"

 

My baby lost his first tooth in Phuket. The tooth fairy was so confused - didn't know if she should exchange his tooth for Baht, Yuan, or US dollars.  She went with US dollars!

The boys playing Dino-golf and making a new friend!

Sarah's cute braids! (She wanted her whole head done, we convinced her otherwise).

Jeff and Sarah went zip-lining in the jungle! Some of the lines were over 40 feet high. Sarah was fearless! And Jeff at least pretended to be!

At at the end of each day, there was this beautiful sight:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

 
 
 

The Elephant Whisperers

Ever since The Detroit Zoo appropriately sent the elephants permanently to warmer climates, I have missed my regular elephant fix.  That was well taken care of on our trip to Phuket where we had actual contact with elephants on a daily basis. The resort we stayed at had two pet elephants who wandered around the beach and hallways of the hotel as well as attending breakfast every morning where the children were able to gather fruit from the breakfast buffet to feed to the elephant.

We also went on an elephant ride which is much scarier than one would think! There was a portion of the ride going down a somewhat steep and muddy hill, and then back up again. I know you are going to look at the pictures below and say "Steep? That's not steep!" However, strapped into a seat on top of this huge animal I had flashes of him stumbling, toppling over and landing on top of us. And then that joke that Zach used to tell - the only joke he used to tell for about a year - went through my mind "What time is it when an elephant sits on your fence? Time to get a new fence!" only insert "family" for "fence". Fortunately, I found the elephants to be very cautious, thoughtful animals and I can now check "Ride an Elephant" off my list of things to do in this lifetime!

Cool shades, huh?